


I Made It Out Of Clay

by BloomingMiracle (Luna264)



Series: Kingdom Hearts Wheelchair AU [7]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hanukkah, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21910321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna264/pseuds/BloomingMiracle
Summary: You don't have to read the main body of this au to understand this fic! (There are spoilers if you are, however. Oops!)---Then, a thought struck him.“You know,” He said to Demyx. “It’s almost Chanukah.”Demyx’s face lit up, and another wave of relief washed over Dyme. He didn’t have to explain the holiday to his own Nobody.
Relationships: Demyx (Kingdom Hearts) & Original Character(s), Demyx (Kingdom Hearts)/Original Character(s), Demyx (Kingdom Hearts)/Original Male Character(s), Ephemer (Kingdom Hearts) & Original Character(s)
Series: Kingdom Hearts Wheelchair AU [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1469156
Comments: 15
Kudos: 30





	1. Shin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the player rolls shin (ש), they put one piece of gelt in the pot. In some variants, the player puts three pieces in the pot, one for each stem on the letter. Other variants occasionally use the letter pe (פ) on this side.

Dyme sighed. “It’s really gone, huh?”

“Not entirely,” Ephemer said. “The essence of it is still here. And  _ some _ stuff got left behind.”

“Yeah, you said, but…” With the exception of the so-changed tower, Dyme couldn’t see  _ any _ sign of the town that had once been there. It was a little depressing.

Ephemer patted his shoulder in a consoling gesture. “Well, today we’re gonna see what knick-knacks might be hanging out in the dirt. Where should we start?”

“Why not where your house used to be?” Demyx asked. His Somebody’s mood didn’t seem to be affecting him; he grinned as he danced backwards, dodging a snowball lobbed at him by Xepherem. “It’d be nice to see if we can salvage any of your things.”

“Yeah,” Dyme agreed, a little hesitantly, and he and Ephemer went off to find it.

Demyx and Xepherem, for their part, co-opted Dawn and Elrena into their snowball fight. Dyme wasn’t sure if there were  _ supposed _ to be teams, but it was pretty clearly a free-for-all.

The patch of ground that had once been the home where Dyme and Aced had lived was, for all appearances, empty, save for the snow and the grass that had flattened beneath it, and an old, old tree.

Dyme leaned against the tree. “At least  _ this _ is still here,” He said.

“We might find something buried,” Ephemer said. “You had a basement, right?”

“Yeah, but-- did you just turn your keyblade into a shovel?”

“I did,” Ephemer said. “Apparently, having someone actively teach you what these things can do instead of giving you one and letting you loose is beneficial. Terra showed me.”

“He showed you how to turn your keyblade into a shovel,” Dyme said.

“Well, not a shovel  _ specifically _ ,” Ephemer said. “Just… into things.”

There was an awkward silence.

“We’re gonna have to address, uh…” Dyme said. “ _ That _ , huh?”

Ephemer blinked, before turning to follow Dyme’s gaze. Demyx and Xepherem had fallen into a snow pile, and did not seem inclined to get up. They were a little busy, what with the kissing and all.

“Oh, yeah,” Ephemer said. “That. Our Nobodies.”

“It’s weird for you, too, right?” Dyme said. “I mean, you had his memories so long, and there’s still a bit of that… memory residue, of stuff you actively recalled and thought about and stuff before…”

“Before he was around again,” Ephemer agreed. “It’s probably worse for me, than for you. Time differentials, and that.”

“Right, uh…” Dyme said. “But it’s  _ weird _ , still. I barely know you, or Xepherem, or even  _ Demyx _ , really.”

“You haven’t been spending time with him?” Ephemer asked.

“It’s  _ weird _ ,” Dyme said. “You know what? I don’t even know why I brought this up. How do I turn my keyblade into a shovel?”

“Oh, uh.” Ephemer blinked, a little thrown by the sudden shift in subject. “Well, I’m not much of a teacher, but… it’s like your essence, you know? You look at your essence, you make it be shovel-shaped.”

Dyme considered that, and summoned his keyblade, looking hard at it. It didn’t do anything.

Ephemer shrugged. “Took me a bit, too,” He said, and started digging. “And like I said, I’m not a very good teacher.”

Dyme dispelled his keyblade. If it wasn’t going to turn into a shovel, he couldn’t dig with it. Besides, he had gloves. He could dig with his hands.

They were silent for a while, digging and listening to the others laugh and play in the background.

Finally, Dyme found a corner of wood. Quickly, desperately, he began dragging and brushing dirt and snow away from the wood, until he’d uncovered the basement hatch.

Slowly, carefully, he opened it, hands starting to shake as he looked down the all too familiar flight of stairs.

“Find something?” Ephemer asked.

Dyme nodded.

Ephemer walked over, looking at the hatch. “Do you want someone to go down there with you, and do you want it to be someone who isn’t me?”

Dyme thought about that. He also thought about Ephemer’s confusion, when he’d mentioned not spending time with Demyx.

“Can you get my… him?”

Ephemer nodded, and ran off. Fifteen seconds later, Demyx walked up.

“So,” Demyx said. “Something about a basement?”

“Yeah,” Dyme said. His throat was surprisingly tight. “Come on. We’re going in.”

Demyx looked down the stairs. “I dunno,” He said, a little nervously. “It’s pretty dark, isn’t it?”

Dyme blinked. Then he laughed. “Have you  _ seriously _ never cast a light spell before?”

“I’ve never  _ needed _ to!” Demyx protested.

“Here,” Dyme said, taking Demyx’s wrist and casting the spell into his palm. “Better?”

Demyx cast the spell in turn, a small, glowing orb appearing above his hand. “Yeah,” He said. “Neat. Thanks.”

Dyme nodded, summoned his own light, and began to descend the stairwell. Demyx followed him.

At the bottom of the stairs, the basement was exactly how Dyme remembered it, plus a few layers of dust. He almost wanted to cry with the relief of it all.

Then, a thought struck him.

“You know,” He said to Demyx. “It’s almost Chanukah.”

Demyx’s face lit up, and another wave of relief washed over Dyme. He didn’t have to explain the holiday to his own Nobody.

“We’ll have to have a celebration,” Demyx said. “At least  _ one _ of the nights. Can  _ you _ cook? I’m hopeless with anything that isn’t out of a box.”

“I can make latkes and nothing else,” Dyme said, starting to dig through the dusty boxes. “We’ll have to find our gelt somewhere else. You’ve been to the holiday world, they’ve got a town we can stop by, right?”

“I think so,” Demyx said. “We’ll have to pick up a lot.”

“Not as much,” Dyme said, finding the box he was looking for. “Check this out.” He set the box on the floor between them and opened it, withdrawing decorations and boxes of candles and a dusty, silver chanukiah.

“Score,” Demyx said. “Is there a dreidel in here?”

  
“ _ A _ dreidel?” Dyme asked. “We made dreidels for first night  _ every year _ ! It was, like, our  _ thing _ .”


	2. Hei

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When hei (ה) is rolled, the player takes half of the gelt from the pot, rounded up to the nearest whole number when necessary.

Of course, they had to prepare.

There were potatoes to get, and gelt, not to mention the ingredients for foods that individuals remembered their traditions of eating on the holiday. (“ _ Macaroni _ , Ludor?” “It was our  _ thing _ !”)

Dyme also bought clay and paints. He was excited.

Still, he was also a little nervous. It had been so long (impossibly long, 1000 years was too long to wrap his mind around) since he’d made a dreidel. Did his hands even remember how?

He carried the box home.

He had to pause in the door, surprise rooting him to the spot instead of allowing him to push past the playful argument being had in his living room by people who did  _ not _ live there.

“Maybe you should do it green,” Caudaxta said.

Strelitzia nodded. “Yeah, no one has  _ green  _ hair.”

“I am  _ not _ dying my hair green,” Lauriam said. “Can you even  _ imagine _ how ugly that would look when it grew out? Green would be the  _ worst _ color for me to try.”

Dyme’s eyes fixed on the copper color poking from Lauriam’s scalp, contrasting just enough with the pink of the rest of his hair to be a shock. He hadn’t really thought that Lauriam or Marluxia had looked that much like their sisters before that moment, but knowing Lauriam dyed his hair bridged that mental gap, a little.

“Maybe you could stop dying it, like me,” Marluxia, whose hair had been naturally pink for a thousand years, said.

“Oh!” Xircon looked up from his sandwich. “If you  _ do _ change your hair, can I have your leftover pink?”

“We already have different hair lengths and fashion choices, is that  _ not _ enough?” Lauriam asked.

“Don’t blame me if you have a depressive episode, forget to get your hair cut, and leave your laundry long enough that you have to raid my closet, causing everyone to mistake you for me.” Marluxia flopped over onto the couch and ruffled Xircon’s hair.

“Wouldn’t his natural color grow out, then?” Dyme asked. “Hello, by the way, people who do not live here.”

“Demyx gave Aqua a key for emergencies,” Caudaxta said. “And she let me borrow it, because  _ we _ were out of jelly at home, and so was she.”

“Also, to answer your question, Lauriam’s even  _ more _ stringent about dying his hair when he has a depressive episode,” Strelitzia said.

“It’s true,” Lauriam allowed.

“Okay,” Dyme said, entering the room proper and setting the box down on the table. “So, uh… Jelly counts as an emergency now?”

“Yes,” Xircon said, very seriously.

Dyme looked at Xircon. Xircon looked at Dyme.

“You make a compelling argument,” Dyme decided. “I still have jelly, though, right?”

“Of course,” Marluxia said. “We’re not  _ monsters _ .”

“What’s in there?” Xircon asked, peering at the box curiously.

“Dreidel makings,” Dyme said.

“Nice,” Strelitzia said. “Are they for everyone, or…?”

Dyme shrugged. “I got a lot. And being together and happy and not dead and stuff  _ is _ the spirit of the thing.”

“Cool, cool,” Lauriam said.

There was a long pause. Dyme was getting used to long pauses; there were lots of times where no one knew what to say, on account of how  _ weird _ everything was, over all, and nothing really seemed to make that much sense in the terms of most peoples’ life experiences.

“So, uh, where’s the party happening?” Caudaxta asked.

“What’s wrong with here?” Dyme shot back.

“I don’t know if everyone will fit,” Marluxia said. “It’s a two-person home, Dyme.”

Dyme looked around at the room, and sighed. “You’re right,” He said. “This won’t work. We’re going to have to find somewhere bigger.”

“We’ll steal the square, if we have to,” Lauriam said. “We’re  _ going _ to fit everyone into this, one way or another.”

“I don’t think we have to steal the square,” Dyme said. “I think we’re fine on that front. We can find somewhere else that is not outside where it might snow on us.”

“I like snow,” Xircon said.

“Yeah, but you can’t very well spin a dreidel in a drift,” Dyme said. 


	3. Gimel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If the player rolls gimel (ג), they take all of the gelt from the pot.

They ended up commandeering the castle for the celebration, because one thing led to another and soon the party was set to host  _ basically _ the entire town of Radiant Garden.

They’d needed the space.

Soon, the hallel had been said and the candles were lit, which meant it was time for all of the games, food, and  _ personal _ traditions to come out.

Larxene, for instance, had organized a dance competition, taking up about a quarter of the main room and filling the whole space with music.

Dyme got himself a plate and went to the table where he’d stashed the clay, paints, and a few hastily written instructions, shovelling pretty much every form of potato in existence into his mouth as he began to pull materials out of the box he’d used to carry them.

Demyx and Xepherem drifted over, wordlessly beginning to help him set up as well. Soon, they were joined by Sean, Igni, and Xion, and eventually Ephemer and a few other people.

It was a larger group of people than he’d ever made dreidels with before, but Dyme wasn’t about to deny that he liked it. Sitting, and joking, and laughing with everyone like that. It was nice.

He had the good grace not to laugh when Xepherem made a truly lopsided thing, and Demyx reached over to help him.  _ He _ had the good grace. Ephemer, like a pot to a kettle, did not.

“Yours isn’t any better,” Dyme pointed out, feeling the need to defend his Nobody’s boyfriend as he demonstrated the shape to Roxas. “I thought you’d played dreidel before.”

“Doesn’t mean I’ve  _ made _ any,” Ephemer said. “Seriously, though, look at it! Xepherem, I don’t think it’s got sides.”

“Yours won’t spin,” Xepherem countered.

“Guilty as charged,” Ephemer said. “I’m getting to it.”

“ _ I’m _ getting to making sides.”

The two dissolved into a light-hearted bickering. Demyx shot Dyme a look, and shrugged. Dyme wasn’t sure what else to do, beyond shrug back.

“I think I’m done,” Igni said, holding hers up.

Dyme looked at it. “Nice,” He said. “Do you have all the letters on, or are you going to paint them after it dries?”

“Oh!” She said, and pulled a sheet closer to her as she grabbed a stick and began to engrave the letters onto her dreidel.

The evening went like that for a while, and for that while Dyme relaxed into the familiar pieces of the holiday.

Eventually, though, things began to wind down, the small candles in their chanukiah began to flicker out, and the people who weren’t cleaning up began to leave.

Dyme was halfway through scanning the room before he remembered that Aced wasn’t there, and wasn’t going to be. He suppressed a sigh, and packed up the unused clay and paints to be made into something else, another day.

“You got everything?” Terra asked, cleaning up uneaten food.

“Yeah,” Dyme said, holding the box up to show him. “Did you enjoy yourself?”

Terra nodded. “It’s always nice to share traditions,” He said. “Besides, the story behind this one is certainly appropriate.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I suppose so,” Dyme said.

“People that refused to die, and light that refused to burn out,” Terra said. “Will we be invited to celebrate with you again next year?”

“Of course,” Dyme said. “What kind of question is that?”

Terra grinned.


	4. Nun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When nun (נ) is rolled, the player does nothing.

Dyme arrived home and put the box down on the front table. Somehow, Demyx and Xepherem had had time to get there to fall asleep and begin to snore.

They snored in unison, actually. It would have been adorable, if it wasn’t so loud.

Dyme snagged a blanket and laid it over them. “Chanukah sameach,” He muttered.

Then he went to bed, feeling sated in a way that he hadn’t for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chanukah sameach!! It's been forever since I got to celebrate properly, but I wanted to write this fic anyways. I hope you all have a wonderful eight nights!!!


End file.
